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The PH usually hovered around 7.3, which I believe is a healthy level. No, I don't have a python, but I need one. My water-changing system consists of a too-short siphon with one end held in the tank and the other end sticking out a nearby window. The window is the only part of the thing that really works!
I think I'm just going with sand this time... The aquarium kind. I know that stuff won't do anything, it's inert.

Hey... If 'inert' means it won't react with anything, does 'ert' mean that it would react with everything?

I've been watching my cories, and they love this sand! They're just digging all over the place, and the random little pits and mounds in the sandbed are already getting leveled out by them.
Unfortunately, I lost my last dwarf cory. He was in a container with the other fish while I worked on the tank, and this 2" Shwartz (or however you spell it) cory freaked out and started racing all over the place. He ended up smashing headfirst into the dwarf and crushing it against the wall, which apparently broke its back. The poor little dwarf kind of struggled around for a minute, then his belly started turning red and he died... I think he had major internal injuries. That big cory is a strong little blighter!

I do have plants, mostly crypts, and I know about the fertilizer tabs. Will the nutrients from the fish feed them? I don't have many plants, just 10 or so small crypts, some moss, an anubias plant, and a couple of java ferns. Well, that and one frogwort plant, plus a couple of duckweed leaves. I know duckweed can go nuts, but I figure it'll take a long time to cover the top, and I can just yank some out when there's too much.
I have a python on my list for my next fish store trip... I figure that, unless some emergency comes up, I probably won't need one for a little while.

Must be the only thing planted then is the crypts because everything else is either floating or plants you attach to wood or rocks, right? Probably one fertilize pellet is enough then to shove in the sand near the crypts.

Yeah, just the crypts. They're all over the tank, though, not just in one spot... Maybe I'll try to crush the tablets in half or something.
Actually, one crypt is in a particularly soft spot on the driftwood, to see if the roots will grow into it. If it starts looking unhappy, I'll plant it, I was just curious.